I love stories like this; I fully expect to find this written into a future Ludlum or Grisham novel.
Ancient Book May Be Covered in Human SkinBeing a WWII addict, I remember reading about Frau Ilse Koch's penchant for lampshads and book covers from human skin which had tattoos.A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday. The macabre discovery was made on a central street in Leeds, and officers said the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary. [...]
Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.
The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy [see below], was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin.
Anatomy books also were sometimes bound in the skin of a dissected cadaver. In World War II, Nazis were accused of using the skin from Holocaust victims to bind books.
Anthropodermic bibliopegy - WikipediaThe libraries of many Ivy League universities include one or more samples of anthropodermic bibliopegy. The rare book collection at the Langdell Law Library at Harvard University holds a book, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias Hispaniae, a treaty of Spanish law. A faint inscription on the last page of the books states:Isn't this history stuff just a hoot! I guess that's why my favorite fiction is historical fiction.
- "The bynding of this booke is all that remains of my deare friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King btesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace." (The Wavuma are believed to be an African tribe from the region currently known as Zimbabwe.)
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Sunday, April 09, 2006
HISTORY: File under bizare and macabre!
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